Middletown in Middlesex County, Connecticut — The American Northeast (New England)

Middletown

By Michael Herrick, August 17, 2013

1. Middletown Marker

Inscription.

Middletown

The area known as Mattabesett, home of the Wangunk Indian tribe, was settled by English colonists from Hartford and Wethersfield in 1650. Situated at the big bend in the Connecticut River, it was named Middletown because it lay halfway between Saybrook and Windsor. Its location on the “Great Tidal River” led to a prosperous shipping economy during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. From Middletown, ships sailed to ports along the East Coast and in the West Indies. Crafts and trades such as pewter making and shipbuilding flourished, as did agriculture in the surrounding countryside. During the Revolutionary War, Middletown became a center of resistance to the British Crown. Many of its citizens, including such men as Jabez Hamlin; Nehemiah and Elijah Hubbard; Titus Hosmer, Esquire; General Comfort Sage; Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs; and Colonel John Sumner, played important roles in the struggle for American independence.
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The town was incorporated as a city in 1784, one of the first five in Connecticut. Commodore Thomas Macdonough, an outstanding naval officer in the War of 1812 against Great Britain, made his home in Middletown and was buried here in Riverside cemetery. Long the seat of the Court of Middlesex County, Middletown became the site of Wesleyan

By Michael Herrick, August 17, 2013

2. Middletown Marker

University in 1831. General Joseph K. F. Mansfield, killed in action at the Battle of Antietam in 1862, and numerous other Middletown men served bravely in the 1861-1865 war to preserve the Union of the North American States. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, immigrants arrived from Ireland, Sweden, Germany, Poland, and Italy, but most notably from the Sicilian town of Melilli. These later arrivals helped to enrich the fabric of the community and, together with others who followed, gave to the City the diverse and cosmopolitan quality it has today.
Erected by The City of Middletown
The Middlesex County Historical Society
The Connecticut Historical Commission
1981

Erected 1981.

Location. 41° 33.407′ N, 72° 38.857′ W. Marker is in Middletown, Connecticut, in Middlesex County. Marker is at the intersection of Main Street and Pleasant Street, on the right when traveling south on Main Street. Touch for map. Located in Union Park. Marker is in this post office area: Middletown CT 06457, United States of America.

Credits. This page was last revised on June 16, 2016. This page originally submitted on August 17, 2013, by Michael Herrick of Southbury, Connecticut. This page has been viewed 440 times since then and 11 times this year. Photos:1, 2, 3. submitted on August 17, 2013, by Michael Herrick of Southbury, Connecticut.